From being my #Cycle2Work partner to roaming around the Bangalore road; from as near as the local kirana store to as far as Mysore, this has remained by my side. It sounds very snobbishly boring to award the stature of this importance to a materialistic possession, but WTH! This one’s earned it.

From the sun shining brightly to rains lashing over, from potholes to footpaths, from muddy roads to the sweet asphalt, you’ve been there.

Few minor repairs and servicing aside, this one’s been perfect. I’ve never felt the need to upgrade and even with this being a 7-gear one, is an adequate ride on the roads over here. Although, I do wish the roads were better.

On days when I don’t cycle to work and left at the mercy of Uber/Ola, the distance of 9 kilometers to office ends up taking close to an hour and sometimes when their pooling Algorithm screws up, more than that as well. On Cycle, I can easily cover it in 30 minutes, irrespective of the Traffic. If the roads were any better the time can come down as well.

Back in the day, when I was on a Strava spree (Strava is a cycling/running measurement app), I’ve recorded a high of 22-minutes. Of course, I stopped using Strava because it was eating away the joy of cycling and making me trying to best-my-time.

People who don’t cycle assume it is for exercise or to stay fit. Frankly, these are just by-products (if any) of cycling. Sure, you can turn this hobby into an exercise, but I haven’t. And don’t plan it to be. This is more to do with convenience, leisure, and what I’ve come to realize is, to derive joy out of it.

Striving for a better Cycling year than the one that went by. And to those who plan to start cycling, there’s no better time to start than this new year.